Heh, notice how I called it "achievements." That's because it's not my idea, and I would not have used that word if it was my idea, as I stated in the original thread. I'm personally against real achievements as well, because while I think that they CAN be used effectively to enhance a player's experience, achievements are used almost exclusively to artificially enhance game time, leaving a sense of pointlessness to the goals when they are completed. So yes, I will agree that adding real achievements this early will hamper the game's growth, and that they really should not be considered before pretty much anything else in the suggestions board.
While I didn't notice you made a post in my other thread, and yes, you are correct that a dropped player causes serious problems (that a simple reconnect ability would fix, similar to how Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends have), I'm focusing more on the gameplay elements here. I wanted to include these ideas in my original post, but it was turning into both a rant and a suggestion, and I decided to split it up for ease.
Well like I said in the thread you made in the general discussion, party based mechanics are all dependent on all the players being there at the time.
If a level loads and somebody disconnects, or somebody has to leave for dinner. You're screwed, you wasted your energy and have to start all over again from the last town.
All party mechanics would have to be optional, side paths with treasure at the end or a special route with a higher chance of super tough rare monsters.
I do like the idea of the 'Phalanx' style shields, though. I think if the two shield bubbles overlap they should become a bigger bubble that lets you absorb more damage and deflect monsters from further away, as well as allow you to be protected by another players shield if yours ends up breaking.
I don't like achievements, every game has them and they're just there to make you replay old content so they developers don't have to make more.
I'd understand that in a single player game, but if they have to consider achievements to add longetivity to the game when it's in BETA, I will go start taking violin lessons now so I can play the world's saddest song at this game's funeral.